It’s a Cardboard War!

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If you’ve got 3 minutes and 33 seconds to spare, you might want to check out a really cool video showcasing some talented young folks and their ability to create a realistic looking war scene using cardboard weapons.  That’s right, the pistols, machine guns, rifles, grenades and tank are all made of cardboard.  The special effects sell it.

Before you click over, the violence is bloody and intense… just remember — it’s a cardboard war.  Click here to view the battle.

Thanks to Neatorama for the original link.

Mick Foley and… Me

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The other day I posted about Mick Foley being at Heroes Con this year.  One of my goals for the show was to meet Mick and get him to autograph my copy of Have a Good Day.  As I wrote here, it wasn’t to be… or at least that’s the way it appeared.

It was about an hour or so before the show was to end for the day.  Several of us were going to go to dinner, so I decided to head back to the room at bit early to freshen up.  As I was leaving the convention center to go to the escalator Mick Foley and I crossed paths.  There was only one other person around so I decided to go for it.

“Hey Mick, any chance I could get an autograph?” I asked.  Mick answered, “I’m going to the table to sign now.”  “Ok, I’ll head back in,” I replied.  Mick then asked, “Are you a guest of the show?”  “No, my buddy is.  I’m here with him.”  Mick smiled and said, “Yeah, I’ll sign for you.”  I thanked him and pulled out my copy of Have a Good Day.  Mick asked me my name and signed it to me.  He then posed for the photo above.

It was a great ending to a great day.  So thanks to Mick Foley for being so cool and thanks to John Beatty for having me as his guest.  Good times.

UFC 116 Results

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Last night was the biggest MMA fight card ever! The undercard was solid, and the main event pitting UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar against undefeated, UFC Interim Champion Shane Carwin lived up to the hype.

Here are the results with my predictions:

Kendall “da Spyder” Grove vs. Goran Reljic.

  • Prediction: Grove pulls out a win in a tough match.
  • Result: Grove defeated Reljic by split decision (28-29,30-27, 29-28) making me 1-0 for the night

Seth“The Silverback” Petruzelli vs. Ricardo Romero

  • Prediction: Petruzelli takes the win.
  • Result: Romero defeated Petruzelli via armbar submission in round 2 making me 1-1 for the night

Brendan “The Hybrid” Schaub vs. Chris “The Crowbar” Tuchscherer.

  • Prediction: Schaub wins via TKO.
  • Result: Schuab defeated Tuchscherer via TKO in Round 1 making me 2-1 for the night

Kurt “Batman” Pellegrino vs. George Sotiropoulos.

  • Prediction: Sotiropoulos with the victory in a tough bout.
  • Result: Sotiropoulos defeated Pellegrino via decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) making me 3-1 for the night

Stephan “The American Psycho” Bonnar vs. Krzysztof “The Polish Experiment” Soszynski.

  • Prediction: Soszynski earns the “W”
  • Result: Bonnar defeated Soszynski via TKO in Round 2 making me 3-2 for the night

Matt“The Immortal” Brown vs. Chris “Lights Out” Lytle.

  • Prediction: In an upset, Matt Brown gets a hard fought victory.
  • Result: Lytle defeated Brown via armbar submission in Round 2 making me 3-3 for the night

Chris “The Crippler” Leben vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama.

  • Prediction: Leben toughs out another victory, his second win in two weeks!  Leban along with his oppenent,
  • Result: Leben defeated Akiyama by triangle choke in Round 3 making me 4-3 for the night

Shane Carwin vs. Brock Lesnar.

  • Prediction: Carwin takes the title!
  • Result: Lesnar defeated Carwin by arm triangle choke submission in Round 2 making me 4-4 for the night

Final thoughts:

  • The fight card lived up to the high expectations.
  • Stephan Bonner kept his career alive with a tough win against a tough opponent.  Both Bonner and his opponent Krzysztof Soszynski picked up and extra $75,000 for co-fight of the night bonuses.
  • Lytle’s submission was crazy —  and in my opinion should have earned submission of the night and the $75, 000 bonus that went with it.  (Instead Brock Lesnar was awarded it.)
  • Chris Leben earned his second win in two weeks and he and his opponent Yoshihiro Akiyama scored $75,000 each as co-fight of the night bonuses.
  • Shane Carwin dominated the first round of the fight.  It was strange to see Brock back-peddling after getting rocked by Carwin’s punches.   Once on the ground Lesnar covered up and simply weathered the storm.  I wish Carwin had gone back to his feet with enough time left to do more real damage.I was sure that Lesnar would go for the take down in the 2nd and he did.  I thought that Carwin would have a better ground defense.  I guess he was just gassed after the first round.  Brock cinched in the choke and it was over.   Congrats to Brock for having a game plan and sticking to it.  Even more congrats to Brock for acting like a champion after the win.

Lesnar vs Carwin: Predictions

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Tonight is perhaps the biggest MMA fight card ever!  The live gate is sold out and the prediction is that there will be a million buys of the pay-per-view.  The undercard is solid, but it’s the main event pitting UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar against undefeated, UFC Interim Champion Shane Carwin.  Both men are beasts.

Let’s take a look at the entire card along with my predictions:

Kendall “da Spyder” Grove vs. Goran Reljic.  Although this may not be televised, it should be a good match.  Grove has more experience but is a slight underdog due to Reljic’s better record (13-7 vs 8-1).

  • Prediction: Grove pulls out a win in a tough match.

Seth “The Silverback” Petruzelli vs. Ricardo Romero.  (Will air on SPIKE TV LIVE starting at 9PM EST) This should be another close bout.  Will “The Silverback” be able to take out Romero like he did Kimbo Slice?

  • Prediction: Petruzelli takes the win.

Brendan “The Hybrid” Schaub vs. Chris “The Crowbar” Tuchscherer. (Will air on SPIKE TV LIVE starting at 9PM EST)  Both fighters have excellent records (6-1 vs 18-2) but Schaub goes in the favorite.

  • Prediction: Schaub wins via TKO.

Kurt “Batman” Pellegrino vs. George Sotiropoulos. Another great fight between two fighters with excellent records (21-4 vs 12-2).  Pellegrino has more experience, is a fan favorite, and a nickname that makes it hard to go against him, but…

  • Prediction: Sotiropoulos with the victory in a tough bout.

Stephan “The American Psycho” Bonnar vs. Krzysztof “The Polish Experiment” Soszynski.  This should be another excellent fight.  Both men have similar records (20-10 vs 14-7).

  • Prediction: Soszynski earns the “W”

Matt “The Immortal”  Brown vs. Chris “Lights Out” Lytle. This is a fight many are saying will be the fight of the night! That says a lot considering it’s on the same card as Lesnar vs Carwin.  Lytle goes in the favorite.

  • Prediction:  In an upset, Matt Brown gets a hard fought victory.

Chris “The Crippler” Leben vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama. Although Leben fought (and won) just two weeks ago, he’s ready to step into the octagon again.  Leben goes in the underdog, but…

  • Prediction: Leben toughs out another victory.

Shane Carwin vs. Brock Lesnar. Let the 4th of July fireworks start now!

  • Prediction: Carwin takes the title!

Heroes Con 2010, Part 7

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That’s Otis Frampton getting ready for his close-up.  Most regular ZONErs know Otis from my many posts about his 7-7 Sundays.

That’s Sean Gordon Murphy holding up the Rocky & Butkus sketch that he did for me at the convention.  I was really excited to get on Sean’s sketch list and even happier when I saw the end result.  You know that I’ll post a scan of it in the coming weeks.

Here we have Wayne Osborne and Uko Smith.  I’d never met either of these guys before.  They were set up almost directly across from Big Beatty’s table.  I noticed that Uko was the artist and Wayne just seemed to be hanging out at the table… sort of like I do with Beatty.  Then I noticed that Wayne looked a bit like me (or is it that I look a bit like him?).

So I told Beatty, “that artist brought his own Zablo“.  Beatty looked across and did a double take.  He got to chuckling.  That’s when he noticed that Wayne saw him looking and laughing.  So Wayne mouthed something that I won’t repeat.  Now Beatty didn’t know what to do.  He’d been caught making fun of a stranger, or at least it seemed that way.  That’s when Big John realized who it was. John had met Wayne before years ago.  Wayne didn’t think Beatty was talking about him, he was just being silly to get John’s attention.  At any rate, it was pretty funny if you were there.

Starting tomorrow, I’ll post some photos of some of the art that made it to the auction.  Hope you’ll be back.

Heroes Con 2010, Part 6

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A fun part of conventions is the fans who dress up in amazing costumes.  Heroes Con always has a large number of fans who do just that and this year was no different.

The photo above is of Gene Gonzales and Joe Pekar.  Contrary to what you might think, those aren’t costumes.

Andrew Chairpar made a surprise appearance at the show.  I was fortunate enough to get not one, but two pieces from Andrew.  He worked up Sly from The Expendables and Sly from Spy Kids 3-D.  I’ll of course post scans in the coming weeks.

Luckily it won’t be weeks until my next batch of Heroes Con photos.  Until tomorrow…

Heroes Con 2010, Part 5

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I can’t think of a better way to jump start Part 5 of my 2010 Heroes Con report than with a photo of Dave Wachter holding a commission of Sly from The Expendables that he did for me at the show.  I first met Dave at Heroes Con 2009 and got a head sketch from him.  Since then I’ve been back for several other sketches.  As you can imagine, I hope that the one pictured won’t be my last.  You can bet I’ll post a scan of it soon so you can see it in all it’s glory.

Mick Foley was a guest at Heroes Con this year.  I took along my copy Have a Good Day so that I could get Mick to autograph it.  Mick was only going to be at the show on Saturday.  Since he’d never been at any convention I’d ever attended, I wasn’t sure what kind of crowd he’d draw.

Saturday rolled around and still no buzz about Mick being at the show.  Perhaps getting his autograph would be a piece of cake.  I went by the booth where Mick was going to sign and asked when he could be expected.  They said he had just arrived in town, was getting lunch and should be at the booth around 1:30.  They said if I showed up then, I’d be right on time.  I checked my watch and saw that I had time to run across the street, grab a bite and still be back before 1:30.

So that’s what I did.  In fact I got back about 1:25.  I headed over to get in line and was surprised to find Mick already signing.  I started back tracking the line which wrapped around a corner and then down a long aisle and then out of sight.  Before I had taken 3 steps I was stopped by a young lady working at the show.  She said, “If you’re wanting to get in line for Mick Foley, you’re too late.  The line has been capped.”

I was stunned.  She repeated herself.  I explained that I had checked at the booth and was told if I returned by 1:30 I would be okay.  She said the demand for Mick was more than anyone anticipated and the line was capped.  I thought about arguing my case, but realized it would do no good and it wasn’t her fault.  The line was huge, by far the biggest I’d seen at any show for any guest.

I hought, “Good for Mick Foley.”  I was happy that so many people wanted to meet him and get a photo or autograph.  Perhaps I’d meet him at another show.  How could I complain?  The day before I had gotten the most amazing sketch from Brian Stelfreeze for my Stallone art collection.  I’d also received a call from my boss saying that I was getting a promotion!  Heck, maybe I really would get a chance for Mick Foley’s autograph at another show… little did I know that my good luck wasn’t over (and I’ll tell you about that in another post soon)!

I wish I knew more about this piece.  It was donated to the HEROES CON art auction.  I don’t know the artist or who won the art, but I did think it was a pretty cool piece.  Hope you like it as well.

Heroes Con 2010, Part 4

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Today we start off Part 4 of my 2010 Heroes Con report with a shot of Adam Hughes.  Most times when I post a photo of an artist it is because i got something from him/her at the show [sketchbook, sketch, autograph, etc.).  That’s not the case this time.

So you’re probably wondering, “Why the photo of Adam Hughes?”  I posted it because the show ran for three full days and the shot above lasted less than a minute and i just happened to be there!  There for what you ask?  (And I’m glad you did!)  That photo proves that Adam didn’t have a line of fans in front of him the entire show.  Now I’m sure that some folks are going to say that the crowd was photoshopped out and that there is NO WAY that Adam had even a second when he wasn’t 3 deep in a crowd of fans.  All I can say is, I wouldn’t have believed it, if I hadn’t seen it myself.

The shakey cell phone photo above shows two of the nicest (and most talented) artists you’d ever want to meet.  The fellow on the left is Sean Gordon Murphy and the gent on the right is Casey Jones.  I was very fortunate to get a wonderful sketch of Rocky Balboa and Butkus by Sean.  And, as you guessed, I will post it in the not to distant future.

You’re probably wondering why the photos suddenly got better.  No, it’s not just because of the subjects.  The photos up to this point had been taken using my cell phone.  We’re done with them.  From here on out it’ll be digital camera work.  This one was taken by my buddy John Beatty.  He was kind enough to allow me to post it here instead of his site.

Tomorrow starts Heroes Con 2010, Part 5.  I hope you’ll join me.  At least the photos will look better.